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I am in school right now for carpentry(5 months left). However when i get out i don't want to live around here(jersey). I want to go somewhere adventurous to learn carpentry.

How realistic is it to find a job as a carpenter/builder apprentice/journeyman in alaska??? I am also an experienced and great painter. I have excellent work ethic. Show up on time everytime sober 100% committed and educated. I never complain.

With an attitude like that...you will have no trouble finding work. Come spring things are going pretty well in residential and commercial construction. At least down my way on the peninsula.

The samething is true in the Matanuska-Sustina Valley just north of Anchorage. Construction crews begin forming in early spring, sometimes as early as March (when there has been a warmer than normal winter). From 2003 to 2005 the Mat-Su Valley was growing by 12.4% per year, faster than any other place in Alaska. Since 2006 it has slowed considerably, back down to what was a more "normal" cycle prior to 2003, just under a 5% growth rate annually.

When Alaskans get tired of paying the high home costs (and what used to be higher property taxes, but since 2006 that is no longer true) in Anchorage they move to the Valley or somewhere south on the Kenai Pennisula (a few crazies actually move to Fairbanks, but don't ask me why. )

The median price for a home in the Mat-Su Valley is $250,000 (up $100,000 since 2003). In Anchorage the median price for a home is $290,900 (up $65,900 since 2003). Plus, you can get an acre or more of land in the Valley for the same price you get a quarter-acre in Anchorage.

As a cautionary note, I've seen a few "For Sale" signs that have been up for two years. The nation-wide "slow down" of new home construction you've been hearing about in the news has definately hit Alaska like the rest of the lower-48. While we are slowing our rate of new home construction to pre-2003 levels, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. A 4.5% annual growth rate is still enough to keep a lot of carpenters employed.

We've got a good selection of those remodel business' down my way. Yes there is some work but not alot that I know of. Most I know do their own. Maybe more in town where the city folk may be less inclined to do it themselves?

What about remodeling? Versus new construction, like additions, kitchen and bath remodels, basement finishes, whats the market for that type of work?

My brother did well with that but he did commercial accounts--seems to be a good market for that.

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